Sentence for rapist who forced victim to read journal is upheld in Pennsylvania

November 6th, 2017 8:22 am - updated: 8:33 am.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A judge has denied an appeal from a convicted rapist in Pennsylvania who forced his victim to read an online journal he had written.

A Superior Court panel ruled last week that Robert Jackson’s 20½- to 43-year-prison sentence wasn’t too severe after he was convicted of rape and aggravated assault in Cumberland County in December 2015.

Jackson’s victim testified that he threatened to kill her and himself before forcing her to perform oral sex on him while holding a gun to her head in East Pennsboro.

Prosecutors say Jackson then made the woman read an online journal he wrote to express his sadness and anger.

Jackson argued in his appeal that prosecutors shouldn’t have been able to introduce the journal, but Judge Carl Solano wrote that the diary showed Jackson’s mindset at the time.